Bedford, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6708-9896
(2020)
Conversations for synthesis: Using the Harkness method in student-led historical inquiry.
Historical Encounters, 7 (3).
pp. 48-62.
ISSN 2203-7543
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Text (Published Version)
Bedford Historical Encounters 7(3).pdf Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
The overhaul of the Queensland senior secondary syllabuses has provided a valuable opportunity to teachers to reconsider their pedagogy during the 2019-2020 implementation. For History teachers, the new syllabuses continue to promote inquiry and foreground the cognitions of analysis, evaluation and synthesis. However, the pedagogical approach suggested by the syllabus does not overtly support the students in the development of synthesising skills. This article explores one pedagogical approach, the Harkness Method, which through collaborative, student-led, structured conversations, may offer teachers and students a means by which synthesis can be explicitly modelled and practiced. This method may better enable students to develop and demonstrate this complex cognition, particularly when embedded within a broader practice of student-led inquiry. I argue that the implementation of a student-centred approach in senior History classrooms, coupled with the explicit emphasis on and development of synthesis through the Harkness method best enables students to demonstrate the syllabus objectives and also develop the broader 21st century skills which will enable them to become the 'empathetic and critically-literate citizens who are equipped to embrace a multicultural, pluralistic, inclusive, democratic, compassionate and sustainable future' (QCAA, 2019-a, p. 1), that the Syllabus aspires to.
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Item Type: | Article (Commonwealth Reporting Category C) |
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Refereed: | Yes |
Item Status: | Live Archive |
Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Current - Faculty of Business, Education, Law and Arts - School of Education (1 Jul 2019 -) |
Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Current - Faculty of Business, Education, Law and Arts - School of Education (1 Jul 2019 -) |
Date Deposited: | 09 Feb 2021 03:49 |
Last Modified: | 01 Mar 2021 06:22 |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | inquiry, student-centred, student-led, Harkness method, pedagogy, Queensland, History |
Fields of Research (2008): | 13 Education > 1302 Curriculum and Pedagogy > 130205 Humanities and Social Sciences Curriculum and Pedagogy (excl. Economics, Business and Management) |
Fields of Research (2020): | 39 EDUCATION > 3901 Curriculum and pedagogy > 390107 Humanities and social sciences curriculum and pedagogy (excl. economics, business and management) |
Socio-Economic Objectives (2008): | C Society > 93 Education and Training > 9302 Teaching and Instruction > 930201 Pedagogy |
URI: | http://eprints.usq.edu.au/id/eprint/41176 |
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